Category Archives: Women

Over-all literacv rate in the Muslim world is 49.9 per cent

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Development and Poverty, Education, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

AT one time the Muslim world was a storehouse of knowledge and education. It produced philosophers, scholars and scientists whose contributions in their own fields gained international recognition. Where do the Muslims stand today in terms of educational advancement?

The collective picture which emerges from the statistics on literacy and school enrolment in individual countries is on the whole not too satisfactory. In some respect it is appalling. A London-based magazine has released the basic data for Third World countries in 1983 from which the following has been compiled. Continue reading Over-all literacv rate in the Muslim world is 49.9 per cent →

Larger allocations to help education and health sectors

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Economy, Education, Health, Human Rights, Population, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

AN UNUSUAL feature of the Federal Finance Minister’s budget speech on Thursday was the emphasis he placed on the need to develop the social sector in Pakistan, especially education.

His professed concern at the poor state of this sector was expressed in the shape of enormous increases in allocations for some of the social sector items in the Budget.

This is significant, given the poor performance of the Government in the fields of health and education — none of the Sixth Plan targets in these fields could be met in the first two years.

It has been clear that the major factor responsible for this state of affairs has been the paucity of resources made available to the social sector. In terms of budgetary allocations, the pace of implementation of the Sixth Plan has also been painfully slow. Only 23 per cent of the planned amount was spent on education and 27 per cent on health in the first two years of the Sixth Plan period. Continue reading Larger allocations to help education and health sectors →

War and peace — why are women not concerned?

Archive Edition, Defence and Disarmament, Development and Poverty, Education, Foreign Policy of Pakistan, Health, International Politics, Nuclear weapons, Social Issues, Terrorism and Violence, Women

By Zubaida Mustafa

The issue conspicuously missing in the debates that take place in women’s forum in Pakistan is that of war, peace and disarmament. Somehow these topics are considered to be of masculine interest only and one hardly comes across women leaders speaking about them — least of all, in meetings of women’s organisations.

That women should keep off such issues in our country is not difficult to understand — though by no means easy to justify. Women have traditionally been kept out of the higher decision-making process or statecraft. Continue reading War and peace — why are women not concerned? →

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AT MEXICO: A higher status for women means a lower birth rate By Zubeida Mustafa,

Archive Edition, Education, Health, Population, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa,

Women figure prominently in the recommendations adopted by the International Conference on Population held at Mexico City, in August 1984. This amounts to a clear-cut recognition of the relationship between the status of women in a country and its population growth rate.

It is now widely known that the higher the female literacy rate, the lower the infant and maternal mortality rate and the better the employment opportunities for women, the greater is the likelihood of such a country having a low population growth rate.

This aspect of the matter was recognised by the Population Plan of Action adopted at Bucharest ten years ago. It has been reconfirmed by the Mexico Conference which has now laid down more precise guidelines.

Obviously, this has been felt to be necessary because in many countries neither has the population growth rate gone down in the last decade nor has the situation for women shown any marked improvement. Continue reading INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON POPULATION AT MEXICO: A higher status for women means a lower birth rate By Zubeida Mustafa, →

2% of labour force: Is the figure for women correct?

Archive Edition, Book Reviews, Labour, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

According to the latest official figures available, women constitute only two per cent of the organised labour force in Pakistan. But it is now generally conceded that this figure is highly misleading.

Even if household work is not taken into account, women’s contribution in the Gross National Product. It, however, remains unaccounted for because much of it is through unpaid labour. For instance, women’s role in agriculture has been a significant one. Yet they do not figure in the agricultural labour force. Continue reading 2% of labour force: Is the figure for women correct? →